Mike rocks: Clubs, churches, hospitals - he's everywhere

Jeanné McCartin

Tuesday

Apr 29, 2008 at 2:00 AM

Call it what you will: hitting the ground running, going 0 to 100 in no time flat, moving warp-speed, it's all the same. It's the story of Mike Effenberger, whose talent has brought him a living at what he loves in a community he wants to be in, in record time.

Call it what you will: hitting the ground running, going 0 to 100 in no time flat, moving warp-speed, it's all the same. It's the story of Mike Effenberger, whose talent has brought him a living at what he loves in a community he wants to be in, in record time.

Effenberger, a musician/composer/bandleader now living in Somersworth, arrived in the area at the tail end of 2006. He now teaches with two organizations and privately. He performs regularly with a half dozen bands and he's music director for the Second Christian Congregational Church in Kittery, Maine.

"Yes, busy times," he quips.

A Bedford boy, he moved to New York City for school, stayed a while then headed back to the Granite State — the dense population and lifestyle weren't to his liking. Two positions came his way almost immediately after landing.

He'd met the members of the Amorphous Band back in 2004, in Vermont. "I'd randomly played with them," he says. "When I moved back they happened to need a keyboard player. It was strange like that — it was wild."

In time that position brought more contacts with other bands and musicians. But before that had time to evolve, he turned to the church, a familiar outlet. "I'd been playing churches since I was 13," he explains. "When I moved here I just looked around at the papers ...; sent out e-mails and a few came back looking for someone. ...;. That (job) helped make it work for a while, while I got connected in."

Church gigs require a weeknight rehearsal and of course accompaniment on Sunday morning. "It's great for a musician's schedule ...; Working Sunday mornings you never miss a gig." Of course there is that issue of an early Sunday rising — but he makes it work.

He doesn't see a lot of that happening locally, but it's a fairly common practice back in New York, he says. Musicians of all genres work churches. "It's a great situation. And honestly, any gathering of people trying to come together and live intentionally in a community, to learn how to live right, is fine by me. I've worked for Christian Scientists, Catholics and now we're Congregational here." The church, he reminds "is one of the oldest patrons of the arts."

Effenberger believes music's value goes beyond its entertainment factor. It lifts the spirit — whether in a club or a church and he likes being a part of that focus. In addition to the church work he also performs reflection services at the Portsmouth Hospital, often during trying times, such as a loss of a co-worker. "People seem to be getting that music has a bigger purpose beyond entertainment, thought it does that too — it definitely goes beyond that."

But that entertainment, collaboration element is working for him to. His career is blossoming on Seacoast soil. "It's an amazing thing to watch different things unexpectedly lead to another. ...; For example through Amorphous I met a lot of different musicians. It lead to Aaron Katz and the Dejas, then I met Philip Bell."

These days he performs "heavily" with Hipology, a jazz/soul organ trio. The band has a bimonthly spot in Peterborough and at Strange Brew Tavern in Manchester and occasionally in Dover. "It's jazz inspired but more funk and soul."

Then there's the Titus Abbot Collective, "definitely jazz in the style of the avant garde, like the downtown New York scene." He also works for Zumba Tres, "that's jazz, Latin jazz, mostly José Duque's music." This band tends to require two to three nights a month.

There's Amorphous, of course, another active band that plays one to three shows a week.

His newest affiliation is the Tan Vampires, best described as singer songwriter music he says "with electronics in addition to the acoustic."

His own group is ftet. The project, which includes Jim Rudolph and Chris Klaxton, plays a mix of Effenberger originals and some of the new standards, "sort of songs of the last 30 years. We treat them like the old jazz of their day. Nirvana or Smashing Pumpkins, Jefferson Airplane and Pink Floyd. It's a jazz approach to that music, to the rock music of '70s, '80s and '90s."

The band plays fairly often at the Barley Pub in Dover and is recording its first CD.

"It's tight extremely tight," he says of his schedule, laughing — it would be without the rehearsals AND the teaching gigs. "I'm over at PMAC (Portsmouth Music and Arts Center) three days a week, between three and five hours — so it's not very long days. And I teach at Shaker Road School in Concord, for one marathon day a week. And private — just a few private."

And yes, like most of the good musicians Effenberger's asked to sit in with other bands and he tries to do the collective thing Sundays at the Barley Pub and Mondays at the Press Room.

"It's an exercise in time management for sure. But it's amazing. It's so much fun," he says. And as long as he doesn't miss a beat — "There's a lot of dedication to making it work," he admits. "But at the same time the reward is living the lifestyle. Community is an important thing to me — and I'll take it."

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